Sibling Jealousy and Temperament: The Mediating Effect of Emotion Regulation in China During COVID-19 Pandemic

Developmental trajectories of children’s sibling jealousy after the birth of a sibling: Strict parental control, parenting stress and parental depression as pre-birth predictors

This longitudinal research identified the developmental trajectories of sibling jealousy in firstborn children (M age = 49.9 months; 55% boys) among 107 Chinese families from 1 to 12 months after the birth of a younger sibling. Four sibling jealousy trajectories were identified: (a) low-increasing, (b) middle-stable, (c) high-stable, and (d) sharp-increasing. Trajectory group membership varied as a function of pre-birth parental factors including strict parental control (i.e., tiger parenting), parenting stress, and parental depression. These results highlight the benefit of examining the development of sibling jealousy over the transition to siblinghood and the importance to recognize pre-birth parental characteristics, especially paternal factors, as determinants when identifying children who may be at greater risk of adjustment difficulties following the birth of a younger sibling.

The relationship between parental role expectations and sibling jealousy: the mediating effect of first-born children's role cognition

This study aimed to explore the relationship among parental role expectations, the firstborns' sibling jealousy and their role cognition. A sample of 190 two-family firstborns aged 3-7 years old and their parents from China participated in the study by using experimental methods, questionnaires, and interviews. The results showed: (1) Parental role expectations had a significant positive effect on firstborns' role cognition. (2) The dispositional sibling jealousy of the first-born children was positively correlated with their parents' role expectations. (3) Firstborns' role cognition mediated the relation between parental role expectations and episodic sibling jealousy completely. The first-born children were more inclined to perceive themselves as resource contender and experience the episodic sibling jealousy the greater the parental role expectations.

Development and Reliability and Validity Test to the Parenting Stress Questionnaire for Two-Child Mothers

China is getting old before it gets rich. Among women of childbearing age, there seems to be little interest in having multiple children, and parenting stress may be one of the reasons. There are differences in the parenting stress felt by mothers with one child and those with two, but there is no questionnaire specifically aimed at the parenting stress felt by mothers of multiples in China. The purpose of the present study is to develop and verify a questionnaire specifically aimed at measuring the stress of two-child mothers in the Chinese context. We chose mothers as participants who were younger than 50 years old and their second child were younger than 18 years old as participants. The initial questionnaire was created after analyzing the results of 83 participants’ open questionnaires and 16 participants’ qualitative interviews. Item analysis and exploratory factor analysis were conducted with 279 participants. The final questionnaire was created after conducting reliability and validity tests on the responses of 263 participants to 23 items on the questionnaire covering four factors: characteristics of mother, environmental factor, characteristics of child, and relationship between the two siblings. The results of confirmatory factor analysis indicated that the four-factor model fit well (χ²/df = 2.00, CFI = 0.91, TLI = 0.90, SRMR = 0.06, RMSEA = 0.06). McDonald’s omega coefficients and split-half reliability coefficients both ranged from 0.50 to 0.95. The questionnaire scores were significantly positively correlated with parental burnout, the regret of having a second child and parenting stress, and were significantly negatively correlated with the intention of having a third child and support for the three-child policy. Overall, the present study confirmed the reliability and validity of the parenting stress questionnaire for two-child mothers, which can be used to measure the parenting stress experienced by mothers of multiples in China.

Parental psychological control and adolescent social problems: The mediating effect of emotion regulation

This study aimed to investigate relationships among parental psychological control, adolescent emotion regulation, and social problems in China. In total, 1,145 adolescents aged 12-15 years participated in the study, which used the Parental Psychological Control Scale, Adolescent Problem Behavior Scale, and Emotion Regulation Scale. The results indicated the following: (1) Compared with only-child teens, adolescents in multi-child families had significant social problems; (2) parental psychological control significantly predicted adolescents' social problems; (3) there was a partially mediating effect of adolescents' emotion regulation between parental psychological control and adolescents' social problems.